Friday, December 3, 2010

12/03/2010
Hubert Webb, Tony Boy Lejano, Peter Estrada, Michael Gatchalian, Pyke Fernandez, and Miguel Rodriguez. I wrote about these young men on Jan. 9, 2000, for yet another broadsheet; the piece is easily accessible in an old computer kept to store bits and pieces of a previously active life, and there I see I’d also taken note what others had felt toward the six, close to 10 years ago.

“‘Hardened criminals,’ said a friend who had seen them on national television the day they were adjudged guilty. ‘They didn’t even show remorse.’

“‘But what if they weren’t guilty?’ asked another friend. ‘Why would they look or feel sorry? If at all, they’d feel sorry for themselves.”

“‘Were they?’ the first friend countered. ‘They didn’t look it; they were eating, or making faces, or sending text messages out on their cell phones, cell phones which Echagaray didn’t have, or Pablito Andan, when their sentences were read out.’

“‘We’re taking away their future. If they can’t keep their future, why can’t we allow them to wear masks when they want to?’.... MORE